March 08: Represent

Until recently, I happily and knowingly took our democracy for granted. My vote and my representation were as inviolable as the North Pole. It was unthinkable that either might ever erode in any number of foreseeable lifetimes.

Then, in 1994, I became a resident of Sarasota, Florida. And in 2000 I saw little clips of paper called chads enable our then-Governor to legally leverage electoral votes to his candidate-brother, which in turn caused the candidate that received the most Presidential votes to lose. Then came the 2006 election, after which not one Sarasota County election official, lawyer, judge, or GAO expert could account for an undervote of 18,000. Now we have 1.5 million Democratic primary votes cast that do not count toward Presidential candidate selection, and we're gearing up for Presidential candidate selection by a few "superdelegates" that are publicly debating their accountability to voters.

These events have sliced through my confidence in our democracy just as sure as icebreakers have now sliced and sailed through the North Pole. I don't know which is eroding faster, our democracy or our climate. I do know that we can no longer take either for granted, and it is within our power to correct both. And that is what I intend to do.

Democracy first. Our democracy is a damn fine idea made real. I think it is worth fighting for. Our first step? WAKE UP!

Unlike the Supreme Court in 2000, and Sarasota County election officials in 2006, I WILL NOT shrug my shoulders and say "Oh, well. Good enough, I guess." I WILL NOT join the powerful chorus of voices that say "Get over it!" I WILL NOT help turn Abraham Lincoln's warning into prophecy by participating in the destruction of our democracy from within.

If I am the last person to stand up for the Democracy I read and fed on in my junior high textbook, I WILL resurrect and join the voices of those first Americans that dumped tea into Boston Harbor. I WILL be represented, and I WILL be counted. Until then, I WILL, with every breath and vote, shout "REPRESENT!"